+II. Human nature needs the voice of Divine Wisdom because the soul cannot rest upon uncertainties+ (verses 6-8). If a man is in the dark upon any subject, he is in a condition of unrest; there is a desire within him to rise from the state of probability to one of certainty. If a boy works a sum and does not know how to prove that it is right, he does not feel that satisfaction at having completed his task that he would do if he could demonstrate that the answer was correct. After all his labour he has only arrived at a may-be. So the result of all efforts of man's unaided reasonings concerning himself and his destiny was but a sum unproved. There was no certainty after ages of labourious conjecture. There might be a future life and immortality, but it could not be positively affirmed. Although the sum _might be right_ there was a possibility that it was wrong. The world by wisdom arrived at no certain conclusions in relation to the Divine character and the chief end of man, and uttered but an uncertain sound on the life beyond the grave. "How can man be just with God?" "If a man die shall he live again?" were never fully and triumphantly answered until the Incarnate Word stood by His own empty grave and said, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God" (John xx. 17). He brought "rest" to the weary and heavy laden (Matt. xi. 28), because His words were truth, and plainness, and certainty (see verses 6-8); before they had been only error, or obscurity, or conjecture. +III. The wisdom of God is appreciated by those who have realised its adaptation to human needs.+ (Ver. 9.) There is a twofold knowledge, or "understanding," of Divine truth, as there is of much else with which we are acquainted. There is an acquaintance with the general facts of Divine revelation--a theoretical understanding of its suitableness to the needs of men, and there is a knowledge which arises from an experience of its adaptation to our personal need--a practical understanding which springs from having received a personal benefit. The chemist knows that a certain drug possesses qualities adapted to cure a particular malady, but if he comes to experience its efficacy in the cure of the disease in his own body, he has a knowledge which far surpasses the merely theoretical. It is then "plain" to him from an experimental understanding. The wisdom of God in the abstract, or in the personal Logos, is allowed by many to be adapted to the spiritual needs of the human race. They see the philosophy of the plan of salvation in the general, but its wonderful adaptation and "rightness" is only fully revealed when they have "found" the "knowledge" by an experimental reception of Christ into their own hearts. To him that thus "understands" all is "plain." _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._